Meetup.com Founder Is UI Alumnus

Started in 2002 by a trio of Internet entrepreneurs and computer geeks, Meetup.com was animated by the concept of "find the others," a utopian mantra ascribed to one-time Harvard University psychologist Timothy Leary. The irony of using Internet technology for something as prosaic as old-fashioned meetings is not lost on Scott Heiferman, the 32-year-old Meetup.com chief executive and one of its founders. "People said the Internet would be a global village and the death of distance," said Heiferman, a UNIVERSITY OF IOWA graduate and former online advertising executive who said he started Meetup.com to build on the sense of community he saw in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "But at the end of the day, people get something out of face to face. We're using the Internet to get people off the Internet."